gives a valuable discussion of the attitudes towards the Bhagavadglta found in two texts of the Caitanya school, but seems to go off at rather

a tangent by devoting the last six pages of his article to "Gauriya Vaisnava Participation in the Secular Affairs of Muslim-dominated Bengal"; and Cyrus R. Pangb'orn (pp. 98-II9) describes the history of the Ramakrishna movement, stressing the "apostolic" role played by Vivekananda.

Part Two of the book consists of two articles on epic mythology. In the first, J. Bruce Long (pp. I71-207) analyses the story of the Churning of the Ocean and discovers that "the 'Indian Mind' ... operates on the basis of a set of intellectual principles which differ fundamentally from those of the 'Savage Mind'" of Levi-Strauss. Convinced Levi-Strauss- ians will no doubt ignore or, at best, seek to falsify Long's findings, which will be a pity: studies of myth, as of most other things, do not benefit from the rigorous toeing of party lines. The second article in Part Two is by Alf Hiltebeitel (pp. 208-224): it represents a major contribution to the (continuing!) controversy over the Poona Critical Edition of the Mahabharata. It is a great gift to be able to see sense in an often apparently motiveless story, especially when, as here, later tradition provides its own, different, interpretation. Hiltebeitel's reason- ing is clear and convincing.

Despite the opening sentence of this review, once it has been decided to employ diacritical points, the producers of a book are responsible

to see that they are employed correctly. The number of lapses in the book under discussion is very large. None of the errors I have noticed (typically m for ih, ' for i, a for a etc.) will cause confusion, but all will annoy. Two other small grumbles: why does Hein quote a Hindi dohd (p. 27, n. I6) with all but one of the final a-vowels removed, thus ruining the metre? And why does Hiltebeitel indulge in the pointless practice of running Sanskrit words together in Roman transcription when it happens to be the case that they would be run together in Nagari (e.g. last line of p. 2I2) ? As it is only since the introduction of printing that it has become customary to leave any spaces at all in Nagari Sanskrit, there seems very little justification for printing ripamatyugramn when one can just as easily, and much more clearly, print ripam atyugram.

S.O.A.S., London JOHN D. SMITH

Many conferences of the greatest interest to students of religion very often do not even have the word "religion" in their official title.

These may be conferences of anthropologists, egyptologists, sinologists etc., but their sections on religion often make important contributions to the history of religions. Thus the European Association for Japanese Studies held its first International Conference during ^20-21 September, 1976, in Zurich (Switzerland). A report of the proceedings of the section on "religion" will be given in a future issue of NUMEN.

From 17-22 April, I977, an international conference-perhaps the first of its kind-on "Islam in [South, Southeast, and East] Asia"

took place at the Truman Research Institute of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. About 40 scholars from America, Europe, Asia and Aus- tralia participated, discussing processes of "islamisation" in Asia west of Iran, the relations between Islam and local Asian cultures, and the

"centre" and "periphery" of Asian Islam. The closing session was a symposium on the comparative status of Islam in various Asian cultu- res.

The I2th Conference on Medieval Studies took place, concurrently with the meetings of other learned societies concerned with the middle ages, at the Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kala- mazoo, Mich. (U.S.A.) from 5-8 May, I977.

The centenary of the birth of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was marked at the University of Lancaster (England) by a colloquium, organised by the Dept. of Religion under the title "Image and Icono- graphy East and West" (July 8-II, I977). In the nature of things the main emphasis was on eastern rather than western iconography. A special treat was the performance-cum-lecture of Mrs. Anne-Marie Gaston, a fully "ordained" dancer from the schools of the great Indian masters, who showed how the living traditions of Indian dancing may throw light on poses found in sculpture and iconography. A special session, for the benefit of those who have to teach religions to under- graduates, was devoted to the use of iconographic material in teaching.

The 7th World Congress of Jewish Studies took place 7-I4 August I977 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with several hundred scholars from all over the world participating. Many of the sub-sections

into which the five main sections were divided, dealt directly with His- tory of Religion (biblical, rabbinic, gnostic, kabbalistic) subjects.

The International Organisation for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT)-an affiliate of the IAHR-held its 9th Congress at Gottingen (Germany) from ^21-26 August, I977. Almost 400 scholars participated. For one day the IOSOT moved its deliberations to Wolfenbiittel, the seat of the celebrated Herzog August Bibliothek, and it was also there that-fittingly enough-Prof. Smend presented his paper on "Lessing und die Bibelwissenschaft", by common consent one of the highlights of the conference.

The 2nd National Conference of the comparatively young Australian Association for the Study of Religion was held at Brisbane, ^25-28 August, I977. Participants came not only from Australia but also from New Zealand and Papua/New Guinea. Papers were read on a variety of subjects and the inception of two new journals was announced: The Journal of Studies in Mysticism, and Religious Traditions.

During 28 August-I September, I977, the I4th CISR (International